In Between
by ErinMilne
Summary: Meet Sarah Jackman. Just your average 16-year-old, right? Wrong. Her emotions are ready and willing to tell all about what makes their girl unique. Fasten your seatbelts for a wild ride! (introductory story for OC, rated K plus for intense themes)
1. Chapter 1: Welcome To The Mind!

**Hey guys. Welcome to In Between. I just want to put this out there, I am not writing this fanfiction for its own sake. There's an idea I've been pondering that I did not want to see inside Riley's head, so I created a character of my own. This is just to introduce said character to the IO fanbase before getting into Plot. Let me know if you like her enough, especially after a few chapters. Enjoy the show!**

 _Joy's POV_

Oh, hi! Didn't see you there. Welcome to Headquarters! I'm Joy, emotional leader of Miss Sarah Jackman. Nice to meet you! Oh, what's that? Learn about Sarah through the eyes of those who know her best? Why, I couldn't have put it any better myself! I'll give you a couple highlights of our lives later, but for now, how about a little tour? Oh, I knew you'd like that idea!

You've seen the movie _Inside Out_ , right? Okay, so you know the gist of how things work in a normal kid's Headquarters. Things do run a little differently here, though. For example, take a look at that big red light on the console. Yep, you've landed smack-dab in the middle of a mind undergoing Puberty! Most of the changes we have to deal with come from the outside, and I'm not going to go into those, but the Mind changes a lot, too. This place used to look really similar to Riley's Headquarters, and us emotions went through a ton of changes, too. I'll point out some specific details I love about HQ later.

For now, take a look at this photo. Sarah was eleven when we took this. We don't look all that different from Riley's emotions, do we? Oh, the grey guy in the robes with the bored expression? That's Logic. See, Sarah has been diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. That basically means she learns and remembers things really easily, but has a bit of a harder time with social situations. We've managed to overcome that last part for all practical purposes - just look at Friendship Island out there! Anyway, Logic is a byproduct of that diagnosis. Thanks to her, Sarah makes connections and solves puzzles more easily than most. She also takes control when Sarah does 'mindless' things like fidget or do a puzzle.

I went off on a tangent again, didn't I? Anyway, here's a more recent pic, taken just this past month. Pretty clear differences, right? For one, Fear, Anger, and Logic all did a complete gender switch. That was a little awkward, especially for Fear, but I'll give you that story later on. You'll also notice that everyone's hairstyle and clothing has been updated. The hair - bob-cut dirty blonde - is a reflection of Sarah's. Every time she gets a haircut or starts trying a new style, our hair automatically shifts to match once she gets used to her new look. The outfits are directly from Sarah's wardrobe, but we have costumes for Halloween or plays the Sarah doesn't actually own.

Now I get to show you around! Let's start with the console. It gets updated yearly, on Sarah's birthday in November. Sometimes we just gety a tune-up, other times it's a full-on expansion. The keyboard here is for speech - we plan out what Sarah is going to say, think, or write next. We have "sticky keys" for stock phrases, like "I'm good with whatever" and "leave me alone". We use the Escape key to avoid uncomfortable situations - get it? Escape? Oh, I crack myself up sometimes...

This panel with all the pictures of body parts is for Musical Interaction. Whenever we mess with these, Sarah really gets down to the tune she's listening to. It ranges from simply nodding the head to the beat to getting up and dancing like nobody's watching! _Up, down, left, right, I'm gonna move my feet tonight -_ sorry. It's a catchy tune, ya gotta admit!

This section is for facial expressions and "sound effects". We also have a ton of ports for daydreams and ideas over here. We actually have objects that look like daydreams, but light up like ideas when we activate them. Sarah's a writer, see, and she spends a lot of time thinking about what her stories are going to be like. Those things are her story ideas, y'know, plot points, characters, the like. We call them Ideadreams. (It's pronounced eye-DEH-uh-dreems.) These white plastic swivel chairs are carbon copies of the one Sarah has in her room.

Oh, the big green button? Time Freeze. See, we emotions get bored sometimes, want to go goof off. Sarah can only do things for so long at a time before she gets interrupted. Usually we set her up reading or listening to music, but if that isn't long enough, we press this button. Time completely stops on the outside, but not in here, so we can go do something like exploring the Islands or saying hi to our Mind Worker pals. When we're done, we press it again, and it's as if nothing happened. Neat, huh?

These Short-Term Memory stacks could use a tune-up, if you ask me. A lot of the time, they drop memories, leaving Sarah scatterbrained and momentarily forgetting commands and things. Whenever they fix that, I hope they keep this one feature I love. When the shelves have some memories on them, and Sarah is actively listening to music, it'll make the memories light up so they look like those bars that pulse up and down to the different stresses of the music. It's awesome to watch, especially when she's got a tune with a lot going on.

Let's see, now for the Islands of Personality. We've got a lot of them. Sarah is quite a multifaceted person. Even then, these don't cover everything she is interested in. Sometimes they team up. For example, Sarah likes the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, and one of her favorite pastimes is reading Hobbes's dialogue aloud. It's cool, but not enough to merit its own Island. Drama and Bookworm activate at the same time. We don't have a Fanfiction Island, either; those bases are covered by Writer Island and Fangirl Island.

A list of them all? Here goes nothing: Bookworm, Friendship, Daughter, Sister, Loner, Writer, Music, Fangirl, Learning, Nature, Tech, Maturity, Grief, Innocence, Drama, Foodie, Acceptance, Kindness, Wonder, Competition, Water, Travel, and Film! Phew, that's a lot of Islands! The coolest part is, a lot of them act like a business in a small town. For example, Bookworm is a library, Learning is a school, Foodie is a grocery store/restaurant, and Film is a movie theater. I expect you'll learn more about the individual roles later on. I helped create most of the Core Memories, which are mostly swirled. There are a few exceptions. Grief, for example, is powered by a solid blue CM.

Now come on, I'll take you to our apartments! This little room right here (you might recognize it) is actually an elevator that takes us down into our living quarters when day is done. We've got a living room, kitchen, and six separate bedrooms. Here's the kitchen now. Nice and snug. Fun fact: we all take turns preparing hot meals. I don't know who's the best cook, but Fear is great in the kitchen. Don't tell her I said that; she'll get embarrassed.

Here's our living room! We've got all kinds of things in here. A karaoke machine, a DVD player, the TV records our favorite shows, games galore, tons of books... We like it here.

I'm not going to take you to the other emotions' rooms (privacy, y'know), but this is mine. You like the yellow walls? Painted them myself. Wonder Island doubles as an interior decoration place. Favorite books and knick knacks on these shelves, a wardrobe for my clothes, a small toy box, a desk, the bed with the cute comforter... The layout of each emotion's room is pretty similar, but we make it our own in various ways. Logic prominently displays her Sherlock Holmes books, Anger has a lot of stress toys, and Sadness has a big puffy beanbag in one corner.

Well, that's it for now. I gotta get back up to Dream Duty. I tell ya, some of the stories you'll hear will amaze you. We've been through a lot. See you within the story!


	2. Chapter 2: The Early Years

_Logic's POV_

Hello. My name is Logic. I've been expecting you. No, you didn't interrupt my reading, I was just biding my time until you arrived. And don't even ask how I knew you were going to say that.

Joy asked Sadness, Fear, Disgust, Anger, and myself to each narrate a different section of Sarah's life thus far. I was assigned the earliest years, since I was "most prevelant" during that period. I shall begin at Sarah's birth and recall all I can up through first grade. I hope you are ready.

The story begins, of course, with the appearance of us emotions. Joy was first, then Sadness next, then Fear, then Disgust, then Anger, and last of all me. If you've seen the short film _Reason and Emotion_ , you should understand why. If not, you should easily understand, because that is all the explaination you are going to get.

I remember the day I came into being like it was yesterday. I think Sarah was about two at the time. At first, I was simply what you might refer to as a disembodied mind, floating in between light matter and dark. That day, I felt a tugging, then a sensation not unlike "sleepy footsies", as Joy so quaintly puts it. Then my feet touched the floor of Headquarters. I opened my eyes for the first time and peeked down at myself. I was not surprised to see my body, made of floating grey particles, nor my grey robes. I did get somewhat startled when Joy approached and shook my hand without warning.

"Hi, new guy!" she said. "Welcome to Sarah's HQ! I'm Joy."

"My name is Logic. Pleasure to meet you," I replied. I don't know how I knew my name; I just knew it.

Joy smiled, "Nice to meet you too! Want me to show you around, or do you want to pick up the ropes yourself?"

"I think I can figure out how things work around here easily, but you should introduce me to the other emotions."

"Oh, right!" Joy was quick to point out each emotion to me. Sadness working the tiny console, Anger was on the couch with a newspaper (the headline: _Hand in Pain After Touching Iron_ ), Fear was distracting himself with the one Mind Manual there was, and Disgust was filing her nails and rolling her eyes.

You'll notice I described Fear as "he". We're all girls now, but Fear, Anger and I all started out as boys. Oh, Joy explained that? Right. And I assume Fear will go into more details about that when it's her turn. For now, back to the story.

It didn't take me long to discern what had happened. "Sarah got hurt when she touched a hot iron, didn't she?" I said aloud. All activity stopped, and every eye in the place was turned on me. "What?" I continued. "Obviously, that's what happened. Sadness does her job when Sarah is in need of comfort, and Anger's headline revealed the rest."

Fear whistled and told me, "You're _good_."

"Just what we need, another know-it-all," Disgust remarked sarcastically. I decided to ignore her. Eventually, we got to be much closer friends, but that was later.

I took my place among the team of emotions. My job was - and still is - to help Sarah make quick connections. For example, when our mother announced that we had a baby sibling on the way, I recalled a memory of the opening of the film _Finding Nemo_ , where Marlin and Coral are gushing about being parents, so we all knew the general idea of what she was going through. Other times, I was in charge when she played by sorting things in order. Like most families, our fridge had magnetic letters on it. I would often guide Sarah in arranging these letters alphabetically. Same for playing with plastic toys; they were rarely played with in the sense of most, rather lined up in a specific order.

Eventually, of course, Sarah went off to school. The school in question was called Sunny Start, and it was (I think) a charter school. I remember the first day of school well. Joy was all over the console getting Sarah excited, but Fear poked his head in occasionally.

"I don't think we're gonna get to ride the bus again," Sadness moaned from the couch. "I'll miss riding the bus."

"I won't," Disgust retorted. "It was sweaty and hot and gross. Besides, it took forever to get there!"

Sadness countered, "Yeah, but the bus driver was so nice..."

"It's better if Mom takes us," I pointed out. "We'll be able to interact more with her. She's been so busy with the new baby."

"Yeah, that screaming, stinking mess!" Anger snapped. "I say the less time we spend listening to that racket, the better."

"Come on!" Joy urged. "We're about to head out! Hug from mom!" She was all over the console at that point.

When Sarah got out of the car and stepped onto the sidewalk, a yellow Core Memory was formed, creating the first incarnation of Learning Island. It joined the others: Bookworm, Wonder, Daughter, Sister, and Fangirl (only nobody knew what to call it at the time). I expect Joy has told you all about the rest that we have now, but keep in mind Sarah was six. Ten years have passed. She's much more developed now.

Anyway, Sarah continued to love school. We had teachers that we worked well with and teachers that we didn't. Sarah even made a few friends, although Friendship Island had yet to form. Her favorite subject was reading and writing, of course.

I remember at the end of first grade, Sarah wrote her first book. It was entitled _The Barnyard Schoolhouse_ , and based on our experiences that year. The characters were a bit off-kilter most of the time, and the writing was hardly quality, but for a first-grader, it was good. We presented a copy to our teacher. That was when Writer Island was created.

Due to a test she took, Sarah qualified for the local gifted program, which meant she had to transfer to a public school. This is where my segment of the story ends. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a mystery to solve with Mr. Holmes here...


	3. Chapter 3: Public School Nightmare

_Disgust's POV_

Hi there. Does my hair look okay to you? Don't say it looks fine, you didn't even look at my hair! Ugh, I'm just gonna tell you my part of the story and get this overwith.

For starters, I'm Disgust. I keep Sarah well away from anything that could potentially threaten her. I have a well-trained ear for the "buzz phrases" that Mom _adores_ using, and I'm quick to react when our sisters are going crazy. I'm not so prevalent when it comes to food (Sarah will eat just about anything on her plate) but I do have some limits. For example? Eggs. Hard-boiled, sunny side up, poached - all gross. I will not let Sarah anywhere _near_ those diabolical things. The only way she'll eat them is if they're scrambled with honey drizzled all over them. But I digress. I'm supposed to be talking about our year in a public elementary school.

So anyway, we started going to Drake Elementary for second grade. It was nothing like Sunny Start at all - separate buildings, no sense of community at all. We were outsiders from the moment we stepped on campus the first day.

"It looks like the schools in our books and magazines," Logic said as we pulled up for the first time.

"And they were all fantastic for those characters, right?" Joy asked.

Fear interrupted with a declarative finger and a List. "Need I remind you that half those books and magazines involve something bad happening to the people at those schools?"

"Look at this place!" Joy insisted. "There's a huge playground, the kids look nice... Sarah will be fine. Besides, she's not among the normal kids. She's in with the CATS, remember? These are the smart kids!"

"Remind me again what CATS stands for other than Crazy, Atrocious, Terrible and Stupid," Anger grumbled.

"It actually stands for Chandler's Academically Talented Students," Logic answered. I love her for that kind of response. Well, at the time I would have said I love _him_ , since Logic did the gender-switch once that Puberty light turned on... I am so glad Fear is explaining that one. But I'm getting ahead of myself again.

"Are we academically talented or what?" Joy asked rhetorically. "Let's do this."

As you can probably guess, that first day went decently. But subsequent days? Not so good. I tried desperately to get Sarah in with the popular girls in our class, but they ignored her for the most part. There were these two boys, Ralph and Jesse, who took oddly great pleasure in bullying our poor girl. If you ask me, they were just jealous of Sarah's goods. I will never forget the day the bullying came to a head. We had a journal at the time, and made the mistake of leaving it by the swings. Ralph found it, and he and Jesse wrote things I cannot repeat on the open page. They had absolutely no taste or decency whatsoever!

Halloween was the worst. We were dressing up as a mermaid that year, and Joy thought that we should try to play with some of the other girls. That worked out _amazingly_. Their game put Fear right at the helm, and she would not let go until recess was over.

Oh, we had a BFF. Rachel. We met on the first day. She was younger than Sarah by a year, but also a CAT. She was also in our Girl Scout troop. But let's face it, that girl had issues.

I was so happy when Mom announced we were transferring to a new school. I was not happy to discover it was run through our church! Talk about cheap and cheesy! I guess Mom did have budget concerns, since we had yet another little sister now.

Well, that's it. I'm done here. Now can I please get my hair done in peace?


	4. Chapter 4: Three Crosses Out

_Anger's POV_

Who the Dickens are you and what are you doing in here? Oh, Joy sent you. Right, we've got to do the stupid History of Sarah. Before we start, I'm Anger, and I do not want to hear any interruptions of any sort. I just want to get this done ASAP. You got that? You better have.

So Disgust was supposed to have left off at the end of our year at that stupid public school. Once that summer was over, we found ourselves in the uniform of Third Cross Lutheran Church's elementary school. We'd been going to the church for years, and I had no idea how Mom thought we could handle going to school at a church.

First of all, our classroom was tiny. So was the class size. We were, like, one of three third graders in the _entire freaking school_ , and the _only fourth grader._ And our classmates? Talk about weird. The third graders were pretty mean initially, even though Joy forced us into friendship with them. The fifth graders we shared a class with the next year weren't as bad, but still pretty excluding. We found ourselves playing alone every stinking day.

There was this bully. What you thought we left Ralph and Jesse at Duke? We did. This kid was named Simon, and he was a total freak. He didn't even try to get good grades. I'll admit, his twin sis Kim was nice, but he was not!

I think the worst thing might have been the stupid Bible story reenactments. Every Wednesday, the special class was chapel, and every student in the school headed down into the sanctuary to do something immature. Every class rotated through hosting the event. Usually, our class did some stupid reenactment. ganted, we did have some good stuff during that time, like the play about the Civil War. We played a woman who dressed up as a man who dressed up as a woman. It's complicated. That particular play formed the first Core Memory for Drama Island, for the record. But those other plays? We had to play a sheep once. More than enough has been said.

I tell ya, I could go on and on about how bad this school was. The teachers were all freakishly weird, sarah hadn't gotten her Aspergers' down yet so we found ourselves doing really stupid things, so on and so forth. And the entire thing kind of forced our family into church every Sunday. There are better things to do with a Sunday!

Okay, that's it, I am done talking about that miserable excuse for a school. Sadness can fill you in with more details but I am out of here!


	5. Chapter 5: The Greatest Loss

_Sadness's POV_

Oh. Hi, I'm Sadness. Joy told me you'd be coming in. I think she wants me to tell about the summer between fourth and fifth grade, and then the following school year. Oh well, guess I'll have to finish my book some other time... And I was just getting to the really good part...

Well, I'm reading _The Underneath_ right now. It's a really sad story about a cat and her two kittens who live with a dog under his mean owner's porch, and they can't go outside or else the owner will catch them and... it's just so sad. I tear up every time I read it. But I digress. The story I'm about to tell is even sadder. Here, have a tissue box - you'll need it.

You saw Daughter Island, right? It's all about Sarah's relationship with her mom - sometimes turbulent, but always loving. You might wonder why there's nothing about Sarah's dad. Well, the thing is, Daughter Island used to feature both of Sarah's parents. She loved her dad. He was such a great guy... I almost don't want to tell you this.

I think it was third grade when the doctors first discovered it. There was a tumor on Dad's shoulder that turned out to be melanoma. In case you didn't know, that's the worst kind of skin cancer there is. He had to go to the hospital. We visited him on occasion. I even found an idea bulb that suggested to Sarah that she bring one of the pig statues she was collecting to decorate his room with. I think he liked that. He got better...

...and then worse. We'd just finished fourth grade. It turned out that the cancer had spread to Dad's liver. He went to the hospital again. I didn't think he'd make it this time. He got worse and worse. Eventually he had to be put in a hospital bed in the family room. Hospice workers came in to take care of him. I was crying every night, and most days.

There was this one really sweet moment. Dad recorded personalized "I love you" messages for Sarah and her sisters. And he got these little satin hearts from Build-a-Bear Workshop and hugged and kissed them all over. Mom took us to the Build-a-Bear at the mall, and we all made bears that got the heart inside. Sarah's was pink, and she was named Alexa. Dad's name was Alex. Joy and I made a yellow-blue Core Memory that became connected to the Stuffed Animal section of Friendship Island.

Eventually, Dad got so sick he couldn't say a word. All he could do was mumble. The doctors said he would only last a few months more. Then he really took a turn for the worse. Everyone knew he was going to die. Sarah and her sisters were sent to spend the night with our grandparents, but we got to say one final thing before we left.

I was at the helm when it was Sarah's turn. I knew she couldn't say much, since they had to go, but I typed in a simple message:

"Goodbye, Dad. I love you."

We went to Grammie and Papa's, got to watch a VCR, and then went straight to bed. I had Dream Duty that night, so I stayed behind when everyone else headed down to their apartments. Joy and Fear did, too. I thought they wanted to talk to me, so I said, "I don't know, guys. Sarah's not going to be able to handle this. _I'm_ not going to be able to handle this."

"Relax," Joy assured me. "He'll get better. Besides, even if he doesn't, we handled Grandma Daisy's death, didn't we? Sarah will be fine."

Fear added, "The doctors did the best they could, but you're right." He wrapped his long, thin arms around me and continued, "It's gonna be hard for Sarah. Things are already changing, with Mom's new teaching job."

Joy also hugged me and said, "We're a team. You know that. And our job is to give Sarah the best life possible, regardless of what happens. Can we count on you when it does?"

I nodded, tears in my eyes.

We stayed there a while longer before Joy and Fear bid me good night and went off to bed. I watched the dream, which was a highlight real of our favorite memories of Dad. After it ended, I was technically supposed to head off to bed, but I wasn't tired. I wanted to talk to someone some more. Joy and Fear both followed an "early to bed, early to rise" philosophy, so they were probably fast asleep already. Disgust was probably going to snap at me for being so sensitive and tell me to deal with it. With Logic, I'd likely get a lecture about how death is a natural part of the life cycle. That left me with one option.

When I got to the elevator, instead of pressing the blue button that would take me to my room, I pushed the red one.

The doors opened into Anger's room. He was pacing back and forth across the floor, and his bed didn't look slept in. I may not be Logic, but I know a thing or two. "You can't sleep either?" I asked.

"Not a wink," he replied. "It's just so unfair. Why do other kids get to have both parents and we don't? It's like we're half orphans."

I sighed, "I know. The worst part is, we can't do anything about it."

Anger stopped pacing and looked up at me. "You sure you haven't been hanging out with Logic?" he inquired.

I shook my head.

He sat down on his bed. I sat down next to him. We stayed there for the rest of the night.

The next morning, we went home. Dad had died.

I shot straight to the console, and Sarah shot straight up to her room. The solid blue Comre Memory for Grief Island was created.

I wouldn't leave the console for days. I made Sarah cry during the funeral. Fear and Anger were often at my side, but Joy kept her distance. I think she knew that I needed to be there.

Joy got to come back a little when we entered fifth grade at this newly-opened charter school that our mom was a teacher's aide at. Sarah liked her school, her friends, her lessons, but still was sensitive and emotional. It took a while for us to recover from the blow.

But I think I'll leave that tale to someone else.


	6. Chapter 6: Get Us Out Of Here!

_Fear's POV_

Let's see, how do I make that chord again? Oh yeah, there it is. Here we go... _Another night, and here we are again..._ Ahh! Who are you? How'd you get in here? Joy? Oh, that's right. I nearly forgot. You're getting the inside scoop on Sarah, right? Well, you've certainly come to the right place. Just let me put away my guitar... That's got it.

No, Sarah doesn't play guitar. She likes guitar music, though, and has always wanted to learn. Well, she likes music in general. All of us emotions play some sort of instrument. We all can sing, but Joy plays clarinet (like Sarah), Sadness usually takes the bass instruments, Disgust is a great pianist, Anger is a drummer and good with anything electric, and Logic deals with the percussion section. Me? I play guitar and violin. We sometimes give concerts over at Music Island.

But anyway, I'm Fear. I'm in charge of safety, planning ahead, all that jazz. I'm one of Sarah's top emotions, not to brag or anything. I was assigned Sarah's middle school years to talk about. It was a really uncomfortable time, and I don't want to dwell on it too much, so I'm gonna keep this as short as possible. That okay with you? It is? Great.

Let's start with sixth grade. We were getting console updates left and right, so none of us knew exactly what to do in any given situation. Sarah was actually a little too straightforward and steadfast in her opinions, now that I think about it. We had a hard time making close pals. Sure, we did well academically. Lit-Comp (short for Literature and Composition) was Sarah's favorite class. It was also her first real introduction to Shakespeare, with _Comedy of Errors_. Joy was always all over the console when we read that, keeping an eye out for the punny humor we now adore. We'd read and failed to understand _Midsummer Night's Dream_ in fifth grade, so yeah.

Sixth grade was also the year of a Very Important Event. Y'see, Sarah has lived in Arizona her entire life. So February 14 has a double meaning for us - not only is it Valentine's Day, it's also Statehood Day. We'd never known this in elementary school, so we made flamingo and magic-message valentines without a second thought. But sixth grade was special, because it was the centennial year.

"Wow, this is gonna be such a fun day!" Joy chirped during history class, where we were reading about famous Arizona people and events.

Sadness moaned, "Yeah, but we don't get to do Lit-Comp today..."

"This has been planned for a while now," Logic flatly reminded her. Disgust and I couldn't help but snicker.

Anger instantly turned on me. "Were you laughing at Sadness?" he demanded as he picked me up by the collar.

I could barely breathe, but I managed to stammer, "No no no, I thought Logic's comment was funny, you're choking me, _please don't hurt me!_ "

After that had gotten sorted out, we moved on to Math class (Sarah's least favorite). In every class that day, we did an Arizona-related activity. In Science, for example, we watched videos about Pluto, since that planet had been discovered in Arizona. There was even a mass birthday party for the state out on the field with the entire sixth-grade class. That was fun, I have to admit.

Seventh grade was a little better. We did some more clubs, got more active, made some pals (and some rivals), kept up our grades... and how can I forget? Seventh grade was the year the Puberty light flashed on.

Ugh, I hate this story. Okay, I'll try to tell it. Here goes nothing. It was a Saturday, about a week after Sarah's thirteenth birthday. For all looks, it was a perfectly normal day in Headquarters. Joy was testing the Hum function on the newly updated console, Disgust was by her side as Sarah helped out with laundry, Anger had his newspaper, Logic was flipping through a Mind Manual, and Sadness and I were chatting about books - specifically, _The Mysterious Benedict Society_. The "Full Bladder" light had just flicked on, so Sarah was sent to the bathroom. Normally we don't look down there, but every one of us was surprised to see red all over. I'll admit, I freaked out. I wasn't the only one. Joy and Logic managed to get us back under control, we talked to Mom, the Puberty light came on, we all decided to press Time Freeze and take a break.

My room was not too far down, so I had plenty of time to pace and think and worry about what the button could possibly mean. All sorts of worries were going through my head. Of course, we'd read plenty of things about what puberty was going to be like, but none of those had prepared me for this. I was so wrapped up in my thoughts that I didn't notice what was happening to me until it was too late.

First I realized that I was referring to myself, Anger, and Logic with feminine pronouns. Then I discovered that my voice had gone up several octaves. My hands flew to my head, and I suddenly learned that the prickling sensation I had been feeling on my scalp was dirty-blonde hair growing in. I took one look in the mirror and screamed. So loud and so high-pitched that I broke the mirror and, as I later learned, everyone else's mirrors _and_ the glass separating the main control room from the Memory Dump.

Yeah, that was an interesting day.

I wouldn't stop panicking for a whole 24 hours. Literally, I got no sleep that night. I don't think Anger did, either. It's still pretty weird to compare my memories from before and after that day. I've gotten used to it after three years, I suppose.

Eighth grade? Don't even get me started on eighth grade. To tell the truth, it was the same as seventh, but with a lot more trying and failing to shine.

Example: the day after commencement, Joy found an idea that suggested we wear the black uniform top as opposed to the red, since we were officially in high school. We were the only ones, and people looked at us funny _the entire day._ Talk about embarrassing!

However, we did manage to join a local choir, which really gave us that opportunity. We even met our current BFF: Danielle Bracken. We have learned so much from her, and she from us. She's such an amazing freind, I can't even...

Phew, finally done. Say, you wanna hear a song? I need a music break after all that. This one's one of my favorites. Learned the chords from Danielle.

 _The seaweed is always greener  
In somebody else's lake..._


	7. Chapter 7: An Endless Uphill Climb

_Joy's POV_

Oh, hi again! Looks like you've circled back around. I'll bet you enjoyed the other emotions' perspectives, right? Well, I saved the best years of our life - high school - for last. Seriously, you are gonna love hearing about this! Ready? Here we go...

Okay, ninth grade. That was a pretty fun; we got involved in so many activities, made so many friends, developed our friendship with Danielle, you know, the usual. My personal favorite was Drama Club. We got to see a Shakespeare play, performed an Oscar Wilde play. We were a duchess! We had such nice teachers, awesome classes, the books we read were a lot of fun! Sure, Billy Budd was a snooze, but the rest were fun.

That was also the year Writer Island really took off. Mostly because Fanfiction became part of Sarah's life. She joined the site, wrote a semi-popular Frozen fic, and got glowing reviews! We'd also been working on this one particular story idea since eighth grade, but it really bloomed around that time. Mostly since the characters became Sarah's imaginary friends. I remember the first time they showed up in HQ. It was a Wednesday, right after school. I had just plugged in a new ideadream, and was helping Sarah with a fresh new draft for her story, which revolved around four kids with powers over the four classical elements; you know, water, air, earth, and fire.

"Here comes the Train of Thought," announced Logic. "Right on schedule."

Sadness offered to go and get whatever it was that the Train was bringing. (Just to be clear, I'm going off of what she and the characters tell me now.) Was she ever surprised to find four kids, around Sarah's age, back there!

The first one to speak to her was a girl, blond hair, blue eyes. "Is this Headquarters?" she inquired. "We were told to make a stop here."

"Yeah, you're at the right place," Sadness explained. "I'm Sadness."

"I'm Maddie. The lanky boy is Caleb, the girl with the hoodie is Colleen, and the short redhead is Alex."

Caleb added, "We came here from Imagination Land. Wanted to see what was going on here, y'know?"

"Well, you wanted to," Colleen muttered.

"I think I'd better introduce you to the other emotions," Sadness suggested. Then she called us over. Fear fainted on the spot, and Anger and Alex almost got into a fistfight, but other than that, we all hit it off really well! We're all friends now. We often visit each other, hang out. Sometimes the Elemasters (that's what they're called) even fill in for us emotions.

Even better? We got to perform in a production of Seussical, which is Sarah's all-time favorite musical. We emotions have always enjoyed it ourselves. Sometimes we perform as the characters: I like Jojo and the Cat, Sadness usually takes Horton, Fear is a Gertrude fan, Disgust can't resist Mayzie, Anger rocks as the Sour Kangaroo, and Logic prefers the Mayor. Anywho - get it? Who? - the community choir we were in was invited to be the Whos in a local dance school's production of Seussical. I remember the moments before the first performance began. Everyone was in position behind the curtain, ready to rock out in the musical's opening number, "Oh, the Thinks You Can Think". We'd had the dance routine memorized for weeks. Sarah was positioned next to a good pal of hers from the choir, Hazel. Everyone was supposed to be quiet, but nobody cared.

"Ooooh, I am so ready for this!" I squealed, my feet pattering below me as I held onto the console.

Next to me, Fear muttered, "I'm not. I mean, this is our musical debut. Who knows what could go wrong?" We'd thought it would be fun to dress up as our favorite Seussical characters for the occasion, so I was in a dapper tux-and-skirt and had the Hat on my head, and Fear wore a simple blue dress with a single feather tied to the back.

"Mom isn't gonna see us..." Sadness moaned. She had on a blue button-down, matching pants, and a newsboy cap.

On my other side, Logic shook her head. "If we just remember the dance moves, nothing will go wrong. And I have the program ready to run." Her gloved hand held up one of those punch-paper thingies you see from old-timey computer labs.

The overture sounded. Logic plugged the paper in so we could do a "test run", doing the dance moves to the instrumental music.

"You guys ready?" I asked aloud.

Everyone was too busy looking at the console to notice my words. I love it when that happens. The performance went spectacularly, and later, Sarah got to be the Cat when we reprised those songs at the choir's spring concert! How cool is that?!

Then there was the trip to Disneyland! Fear has begged me not to share many details, but I'll just say I loved the opp to get closer to Danielle.

Tenth grade was even better than ninth. Most of the islands you see here now? Formed that year. We made almost straight A's (okay, B in math, but still pretty good, right?). One of my favorite parts of that year is the expansion of Drama Island. See, a new drama teacher came to our school that year, and gave Drama Club a complete overhaul. We started the year with student-written plays. Based them off of some fairy tales, some well-known, other not so much. We got to help write one based on "Snow White and Rose Red", which, for the record, does not involve seven dwarves. Our starring role was a bird (okay, _the_ bird) in an adaptation of Cinderella, complete with cutting off of foot parts.

The next semester brought with it singing lessons for Sarah and the first-ever school musical. We did _The Pirates of Penzance_. Sarah really wanted to be Edith in that play, but were we ever surprised to find out that she'd gotten the role of the Sergeant! (Disgust's reaction: "Well, tarnatara." You wouldn't believe how often she kept saying that...)

Since the police only appeared in the second act, we didn't have to go to as many rehearsals. It was still a lot of fun to be at the head of the four-man police force. There was this one glorious note we nailed. The first performance, we kept laughing inappropriately, but otherwise did great.

After that was our part in _Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat._ Amazing. All I can say. Sure, we were stuck in the immature ensemble, but we had a blast. The pros were so nice to us.

Then there was the choir's tour to San Francisco! We'd seen Inside Out by this time, so of course we had an emotional experience - ha! Especially considering it was our last gig with the choir. Sadness couldn't stop crying. Neither could I, to be honest, but those were happy tears.

Eleventh grade has been going amazingly! I think the highlight of the year was either getting into the honor choir, being on the Shakespeare Team with our crush, or starting a band. I'll go into details later, but we scheduled a movie night for tonight. _Moana_! Gotta love that one. I guess I'll be seeing you around. Chair! That's our way of saying see ya. Tee hee!


	8. Chapter 8: Pure Imagination

Maddie's POV, **Caleb's POV,** _Coleen's POV,_ Alex's POV

Let's see, what do we have to do here today?

 **Uh, Maddie?**

Is there a problem, Caleb?

 **Maybe. I don't know, but... there's someone in Headquarters.**

 _Look, it's right here on the note that Logic left: "Expect visitors today. They're getting an 'inside look' at Sarah and have been interviewing us emotions about her life and mind. Feel free to talk to them. Time Freeze may become necessary."_

How'd they even get in here, anyway?

 _Who knows?_

Well, either way, nice to meet you. I suppose we're the next best authorities to the emotions, seeing as we spend so much time up here.

 _We're the Elemasters, Sarah's foremost Characters. Being a Character is similar to being an emotion, but also totally different._

 **We're created in the same way, but serve different functions. For example, all emotions have powers, but we Characters don't unless out Narrators give them to us.**

Sarah's got another character, Beatrix, with two distinct sets of powers. She developed ice powers by living in a giant freezer, and recently she became the "Logical Energy Representative" or something like that. Please don't ask me to explain, because it's a long and convoluted story.

 **Anywho, we also don't last as long. There's a whole slew of characters that Sarah's created and then totally forgotten about because their stories weren't going anywhere. And while emotions have to stay in Headquarters (technically), we've got free reign on the Mind.**

We can go wherever we want, but we normally stay in Imagination Land, where we live. In fact, I think that's what we should talk about.

Imagination Land?

Sure, why not?

 _I'm good with that._

 **Ooh, I love talking about Imagination Land! Yeah, Sarah's got a huge one. The first thing you see when you walk in is the Deconstructed Burger Barn. Serves the same function as French Fry Forest.**

 _Sarah deconstructs her burgers. It's weird._

Then you have Mount Inspiration, which is a big jumble of random objects that you can out together to make a story, sort of like the Story Cubes. Possibility Avenue displays possible careers for Sarah - and, believe me, there are a lot of them!

Yeah, you got bestselling novelist, superstar singer, Broadway actress, top lawyer, psychiatrist, teacher, wife and mother... the list goes on, but every single item on it is manifested in some form on Possibility Avenue.

 **Remember Cloud Town, from Riley's Imagination Land? We have on, too, but it's more of a brainstorm factory than a normal town. Maddie and I love hanging out there.**

 _All of Sarah's current characters have a home in Imagination Land, too. We each have a separate home, akin to our living quarters in our story. For example, I live in a cave._

Some of our neighbors are the Humanals, who are half-human and half-animal, the Inklings, who are Characters in every fibre of their being, and the Timekeepers, who can jump through time and control it in other ways.

There's also a new section being built for a new story Sarah's come up with based on Plato's _Republic_ , which she's reading in class. It's sort of a dystopia, but we know Sarah wants to make it creative.

See, there's the ideadream for Platonia right there in the console!

 **And how can we forget about Poetry Park? It's this big grassy area right smack in the middle of Imagination Land, where you can go hang out, have a picnic, and check out the statues and fountains. There are these big stone tablets that have the text of Sarah's poetry carved right into them.**

And then there's the Worlds Beyond Express. The main stations are in Imagination Land and Fangirl Island, but it takes you to any of Sarah's favorite universes.

Seussia, New York City, the Pacific Islands, Ireland, Oz, Arendelle... you get the picture. Once you get there, you can choose to assume the identity of a character in that universe or don an invisibility cloak and be a SIlent Witness.

 _So yeah, that's it about Imagination Land._

We hope to see you there sometime! Have fun exploring the Mind!


	9. Chapter 9: If You Dare

_Ecstasy's POV_

Welcome to the Hollywood Tower Hotel, our elevators aren't working at the moment, would you like to step into - wait a second. You're not from around here. What are you doing in the Subconscious?

Oh, me? I'm Ecstasy. The Extreme counterpart of Joy, and receptionist here at the Tower. You don't know what I mean by Extreme, do you? I'll enlighten you - not literally, of course... oh, puns...

Extreme Emotions are very similar to emotions, except we're more... intense. Supposedly, we have absolutely no capability of feeling anything but our essence. I'm living proof that that is dead wrong, since I don't feel very happy a lot of the time. Maybe things would be different if I didn't live in the Subconscious, but we aren't allowed out by Terror, and the place is heavily guarded. The other Extremes apply to the rules, definitely. Depression, Envy, Rage... all of them seem to feel nothing but their name. Terror is, again, an exception. I'll tell you more about her later.

I remember that, when I was first created, I did feel happy. And Terror felt afraid. But as we explored the Subconscious, Terror realized that this was exactly the place for her, and I just... somehow... lost my happy feeling. I knew that I would never be close to Sarah.

So, yes, this is Sarah Jackman's Subconscious. Like Riley Andersen's, it contains some of her darkest fears, but unlike Riley's, we keep Sarah's darkest secrets in here, too. Technically, no one's allowed in or out, but the emotions sometimes have to do routine checks. Usually Logic does it here, since this place effects her minimally. But, you may ask, how do we get all these things in if no one comes in or goes out, or only rarely? The other Extremes and I were the first things to appear here, and then, as Sarah got older and started creating memories, some of them came down here and created things. I've heard that the Islands of Personality work in the same way. Subconscious Memories (that's what we call them) supposedly shine almost as bright as Core Memories. We actually keep the SMs here in the Tower. I'll show you.

See, this one is for all the chickens that roam this place; I'll bet you were wondering about that. Sarah has mild alektorophobia. This one is of _How The Grinch Stole Christmas_. The Grinch was the monster under Sarah's bed for a while. Here, he's one of Terror's main goons. This one's for E.T... Edgar Allen Poe and Tim Burton's works have whole neighborhoods dedicated to them. Poetown and Burtonville. Moving on... here's a bike crash... this one created the Tower of Terror, the very one you're standing in. It not only gives Sarah a fear of the ride itself, but also of haunted houses, falling, and (to an extent) thunderstorms. This one's my favorite, mostly because it's not solid purple. See, it's swirled, with a mixture of yellow, blue, and purple. This beauty was created when Sarah realized she saw two of her friends, Josh and Adam, as, well, more than friends. There are statues of them down here. This one is for a roleplay forum that Sarah is technically never supposed to be on, but is.

I suppose I have to tell you about Terror now, don't I? She's the ruler of the Subconscious, although she acts more like a CEO than a queen. Her office is on the top floor of the Tower. She runs a tight ship - if one thing is out of place, she will punish you. And, believe me, she can punish you. She has the ability to see whatever you fear, and manifest it physically or psychologically. But, other than body shape, she's nothing like Fear. She's more sophisticated, more elegant. Less scalable. Darker - much darker.

That's about it on the Subconscious. If I were you, I'd get out while I still could...


	10. Chapter 10: Nose In A Book

_Joy's pov_

Nice to see you again! Caleb mentioned you visited while he and the Emasters were there, and is it true you went to the Subconscious? That is so brave of you. I don't know many people who would willingly visit the Subconscious. Fear pales at the very name. Oh, what's that? Info about the Personality Islands? Well, you've come to the right place. I guess we can start with Bookworm Island. That's one of the ones I always help out in creating the Core Memory for.

Speaking of Core Memories, right now the one for Bookworm is sort of a blend of every emotional color. Sarah's reading _Legend_ for the first time. See, in the books that Sarah likes best, every one of us emotions get a chance to use the console. Ideally, there's a good dose of comedy, at least one tearjerker, a tense or otherwise scary moment, _maybe_ a romantic subplot, a dash of action, and themes that we have to consider deeply. The perfect example? _Charlotte's Web_. Sarah's loved that one ever since she was a preschooler. Some other favorites include _Fablehaven, The Day Jimmy's Boa Ate the Wash_ , pretty much anything written by Roald Dahl, and more recently dystopias. Like you heard, Sarah's been working with the ideas in her favorite dystopias to develop her own.

The first-ever Bookworm Island Core Memory was when Sarah was really little - about five months old. Logic would know for sure, but she wasn't around at the time. I think it was still just me and Sadness at that point. Anyway, it was really late, and Sarah was already tucked in. Mom had just turned on the nightlight, which was the only thing that would get Sarah to go to sleep. Eventually, Sarah got over her fear of the dark, but it was there for a while. It's why the Subconscious is so dim. Anyway, we hadn't really come up with Islands yet. Most haven't at that age. But back to the story...

Sadness had both decided to hit the sack early, so I was left alone. I was just about to guide my girl into REM and send off the memories from the day when Mom did something completely unexpected. She sat down at the foot of Sarah's bed, a book in her arms. She opened the book and began to read aloud. It was a sweet book, one about how different baby animals in a forest got themselves ready for bed. Sarah went right to sleep, unusually, after the story ended, but I had been holding down the button the whole time. I had been so entranced in the atmosphere of the story. I wanted to know if all books would do that. The console was still glowing yellow as Sarah closed her eyes, and a millisecond before she did, a gleaming yellow memory rolled down to a newly formed podium and sparkles formed an Island - our first Island.

Sadness was shocked by the new Island. She was convinced it was a very bad thing. In the end, we checked out a Mind Manual and learned that this was perfectly normal for Sarah. Sadness got used to the Island. As Sarah grew older, she continued to love being read to, and, eventually, reading books herself. Her favorite books had memories dedicated to the text and pictures. One of my favorite games was to have Sarah quote a picture book from memory. I noticed a change in the emotions, too - we became more interested in books ourselves. We read the Mind Manuals and book that had been sent up from the Island, eagerly devouring each and every one. Logic, naturally, was the first to notice that the Island had affected us. He wasn't worried. (That's Fear's department!)

Now, about the Island itself. It serves as a library and bookstore for the rest of the mind. Every book Sarah has ever read, and a few she's merely heard of or read summaries for, has at least one copy on the shelves. From Headquarters, it looks like a stack of books, very artistically arranged. The titles (they are very visible) are those of Sarah's all-time favorites, which I already mentioned. And Bookworm Island has recall tubes connecting it to related Islands! Those would be Writer, Fangirl, and Learning. I'm actually off to Bookworm myself! Want to come? No? Eh, all right. Enjoy the rest of your self-guided tour!


	11. Chapter 11: Food For Thought

_Fear's POV_

You again, huh? Why am I not surprised? Seriously, why _am_ I not surprised? Normally I'd be demanding ID. Guess Logic's finally starting to rub off on me. Anywho, to business. Joy said you're interested in the Islands of Personality, right? Right. Let me see, which one can I tell you about… does Foodie sound interesting? It does? Great.

I'm sure Disgust already told you this, but Sarah's never been a picky eater. Sure, there are foods she doesn't particularly care for: beets, beans, fish, yams, salad dressing, you get the idea. But unless it's eggs, or something where eggs provide most of the flavor and/or texture, like potato salad, Disgust gives the go-ahead, and she'll eat it. Most of it, anyway. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The main reason Foodie Island exists is that Sarah has of late become interested in cooking. It's a recent addition to the Personality Archipelago, only about a year or two old. The Core Memory is two-colored. It's purple and green - me and Disgust. We made that one.

Again, it was about a year or two ago, I can't say for certain. I do know that it was Mother's Day. Joy had found an idea bulb that suggested we make breakfast in bed for our mom, and we'd risen early in order to do exactly that. Sarah's sisters were still fast asleep, I think they'd been watching a movie or something. Anyway, back to the story. There was this memory that had been popping up a lot leading to this occasion. It was yellow, but Sadness had added a bit of blue to it. She'd been able to partially turn a lot of our memories of Dad, and this one showed Sarah and her sisters making biscuits for Mom with him. So, naturally, Joy thought it would be cool if we tried to make biscuits again, by ourselves. No one else did. But, Joy is the leader, so we tried it regardless. We found a cookbook recipe that would suffice. Disgust and I took the helm, mostly because I was worried that we'd get something wrong and it would blow up in Sarah's face, and Disgust wanted to be meticulous and make sure that _didn't_ happen. Joy and Logic helped, of course, but it was mostly us. Nobody noticed that a Core Memory had been made until after we got the biscuits into the oven and settled Sarah down with a good book.

I don't know where the name Foodie Island came from. Logic suggested Cooking Island, and still calls it that. Disgust probably came up with that name; she's the most stereotypically girly out of all of us. Now that I think about it, it was her, wasn't it? Either way, Foodie Island, yeah. Sarah started paying more attention to how food was prepared, helping out in the kitchen, etc. etc. That was also about the time we got the kitchen installed within our apartments. Just like with the other Islands, this one kinda changed us. We started messing around in that kitchen much more than we would have without the Island.

The Island itself showcases some of Sarah's favorite foods, cooking tools, and techniques. That big cake in the center is supposed to be red velvet, Sarah's favorite flavor. The classic hamburger has a place on that Island as well. Bananas, too. I think you'll find an eggbeater there, but honestly, I don't remember all the details that well. It's been a while since I was down there. Speaking of which, the Island serves two different functions. One, it's a grocery store, packed full of all the necessities for cooking. The other side is a restaurant, where we go when we don't feel like cooking.

Oh, I feel like I should tell you how eating works for us emotions. See, we're not living in the sense of the biological definition, but rather, we exist as part of Sarah. So, normally, we get all the energy and nutrients we need from the food she eats. But we are capable of preparing and eating food ourselves, and when we do that, it's an extra benefit, sort of like a power-up in a video game. We get extra energy and nutrients. We don't strictly need to do it, and are capable of doing without it altogether, but it's nice to have that extra boost when we need it. It's the same with sleep. We could do without sleep, and just recharge while Sarah sleeps, but when we sleep ourselves, we get a little extra energy for the day. Still, someone has to stay awake for Dream Duty, and tonight that someone is me. Care to join me? I could show you how dreams work around here. Another time? Eh, you be you. Just do me a favor - don't tell Disgust I said that stuff about her being girly!


	12. Chapter 12: Fan the Flame

_Winnie's POV_

Duh _dah_ duh _dah_ duh _dah_... Oh, hello. You're new. Are you a fresh Character, or what? Oh, that makes a ton more sense. You're just visiting from... where, exactly? Oh, never mind. I won't understand even if you do explain. I suppose I'd better introduce myself, then. My name's Winston DePuh, but you can call me Winnie. Oh, the name sounds familiar? It should. The thing is, I'm a Character like the Elemasters - you met them, right? They're great. Maddie's one of my closest friends. But there's a key difference about me. I'm a special type of Character: a Fan Character. I suppose that makes me the right person to tell you about Fangirl Island, which is where I live, and where you are right now.

First, about Fan Characters. Again, we're mostly like the Original Characters, in that we show up here in Sarah's mind once the proper Ideadream is discovered. The main difference is in how we show up. We've got feet in two different universes, so when we are created, it's always within the universe that we're technically an addition to. We're always within walking distance of a Worlds Beyond Express stop, so we can make it to the mind and figure out what's going on. Like the Originals, we come into being with all the memories we would have at the beginning of our story, with more memories added as the story continues. Jarring, yes, but you get used to it quickly.

Take me, for example. I'm part of a High-School Alternate Universe for the Disney Animated Canon. Why, yes, I am an alternate version of Winnie the Pooh! How'd you guess? Anyway, I think I was waiting at a bus stop in my home universe when I first came to be. I was chatting with Percy, that universe's Piglet. We saw the Express pulling in, but Percy was too scared to investigate. I didn't want to miss the bus, but I guess I didn't think about it too much, since I went over without much of a second thought. I am, after all, a boy of very little brain.

I was pulled on by a conductor, who I learned later was actually a Mind Worker, and given a ticket. I've never been too good at reading cursive, so I didn't even bother to read the fancy print on it. I just sat down in an empty car like he told me to. I asked if the train would take me to school, and he said that no, it wouldn't, but I wouldn't miss the bus. The train started before I could say anything else. It was normal at first, but a few flashes of bright colors (emotion colors, I later learned) later, I was traveling through the mind for the first time. I can tell you, I had no idea what was going on, but my gut feeling said it was going to work out. And I always trust my gut feeling.

The moment I got off the train in what I would come to know as Imagination Land, I was blasted in the face with confetti and shouts of "NEW GUY!" Someone even made a banner with "New Guy" on it. Before I could even say hello, I was pulled right into a musical number. Yes, a musical number. "Consider Yourself", to be exact. I don't know if the Elemasters mentioned this, but Imagination Land operates on the Laws of the Musical Universe. If someone feels like singing, the music immediately starts playing from out of nowhere. Anyone who's in close enough proximity can serve as background dancers and singers, provided they know the Laws and are willing to go along with the song. And reality can be and, often, is warped during one of these musical numbers, but you have to be willing to go along with it, otherwise you'll just stand there and be completely confused by the number, like I was for most of "Consider Yourself". 'Course, by the end I was singing along, but that's in the nature of the song.

Once it was over, everyone dropped their poses and left the station. Maddie stayed behind, so I approached her. "I'm not sure what just happened," I admitted, "although I'd like to have it happen again, so I know what's coming this time."

Maddie just grinned at me and said, "Everyone gets welcomed with 'Consider Yourself', don't feel too overwhelmed. Trust me, by the time the next newbie comes around, you'll be singing and dancing like a pro."

"That's nice," I said, "but would you mind explaining where exactly I am?"

"It's kind of a long story. Walk with me?"

So I did, and she told me everything I needed to know. That I was a Character, and currently in Imagination Land. That I would always have a place to stay at Fangirl Island, but the Worlds Beyond Express could take me back home without any time having passed at all. She told me about the Islands, the emotions, everything. Once I'd had a full tour and heard everything, I figured I needed to head back, so I bid Maddie goodbye and got back on the Express. As she said, no time at all had passed in the universe I had left behind.

So, yes, now I divide my time between my little place here and my home in the High School Alternate Universe. I'm the only person in that universe who regularly uses the Express, even though everyone is technically a Fan Character. I did tell some of my friends, but they just shrugged me off. I'm sure they'll find this place eventually. Either way, I did eventually get to meet the emotions in person. That was a treat. I got to learn about the creation of Fangirl Island, which I can now relate back to you.

Fangirl was one of Sarah's first Islands of Personality. She was four or five, certainly still young enough to be read to at bedtime. Although most of the emotions had shown up at this time, Joy was the one to create the first Core Memory. She was putting Sarah to bed, but not before prompting some questions about the world in which the book she'd just been read took place. Sarah's mother did her best to answer them before kissing Sarah goodnight, but Joy managed to plug in some Daydreams before Sarah went to sleep. By the time she did, a gleaming golden Core Memory had formed the first incarnation of Fangirl Island. They didn't know what to call it for the longest time, though. I think it was only once Sarah had hit middle school, not too long before the Elemasters were created, that they finally decided on the name. Now it's more colorful: Joy, naturally, still had a hand, but Logic also added her two cents. The other emotions played parts, but yellow and grey are the two primary colors of that memory. The Island itself? As you can see, it's more abstract than many of the Islands in the Archipelago. The centerpiece is supposed to be a bunch of ideas from various fandoms exploding out of Sarah's head. And, of course, the Island serves two purposes. One is as a second home for Fan Characters, since Imagination Land is really more for Originals. The second? This is also the Mind's convention center! Big parties and events, such as our version of Comic-Con, go down here once or twice a year, and in the meantime, they occasionally schedule lectures or seminars. I rarely go, unless I'm invited to read my poetry.

Speaking of my poetry, it's not going to write itself, although I sometimes wish it would. Thank you so much for stopping by. Feel free to visit again!


End file.
